Drone Tech News

With 125,000 people expected daily and an increased camping area and footprint, thefestival dwarfs its host city, Indio. In the wake of the killing of 58 at a Las Vegas music festival, Indio police and 14 other local and federal agencies will have more eyes than ever on the crowd thanks to the aerial surveillance.

If reductions in habitats due to deforestation and climate change weren't enough, many species around the world are being driven to the brink of extinction from poaching. We've already seen numerous efforts employing drones to help combat this threat,

Some drone-delivery startups are trying to revolutionize the way we get pizza or packages. Others are trying to save lives. Zipline, the California-based startup that has been flying delivery drones in Rwanda since October 2016, announced today (April 3) that it’s launching a new fleet of drones that it says are likely the fastest in the world.

Ann Arbor — The University of Michigan College of Engineering has lift-off. On Wednesday, it celebrated the grand opening of M-Air, an outdoor drone flying lab on north campus. The 9,600-square-foot, netted complex sits in between the aerospace research building and the soon-to-be Ford Motor Co. Robotics Building, which is to open in 2020.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Air New Zealand said Tuesday that a drone came within meters of a flight descending into Auckland Airport from Tokyo, putting the safety of 278 passengers and crew at risk. After Sunday’s incident, the national carrier is calling for prison terms for drone operators who endanger lives.

We recently reported on Walmart filing a patent for crop-fertilizing drones that could help alleviate the decreasing bee population, as well as Samsung’s plans to develop flying display drones that could potentially improve the shopping experience for customers.

Drone near-misses with planes have more than tripled in two years, new figures show. Some 92 incidents were recorded in 2017, according to analysis of UK Airprox Board (UKAB) data. This is compared with 71 during the previous 12 months and 29 in 2015.

Drone delivery is a hot topic this week. Last Tuesday, Amazon received yet another patent that may help to make a more efficient and greener way to deliver packages, a reality sooner than you think. This latest patent protects a method to literally ‘drop’ packages from as high as 25 feet on your doorstep or patio.

Dozens of firefighters were called to help contain a blaze at the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff in Northern Arizona, on Tuesday after a “personal drone” sparked a 335-acre wildfire. Authorities were called to the scene, a section of grasslands southeast of the Kendrick Park trail, at approximately 12:30 p.m local time, officials said.

Baltimore — Federal officials seeking to expand drone use around the United States said Tuesday they are pushing a pair of security initiatives to deal with what one called “the clueless, the careless and the criminal.”